A Little Piece Of Forever
by AiteIncarnate
Summary: "Perhaps the time will come when our world is ready to be free of the Volturi altogether." Three years after the events in Breaking Dawn, the Cullens are approached by an old acquaintance with startling news. The choice, is now between right and wrong, where one means death and the other, safety. In the midst of all the turmoil, life asserts itself in the form of love. Canon.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer : Stephenie Meyer owns all the characters you recognize. The rest are mine.**

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_Bella_

The mellow morning sunlight filtered through the curtains, causing dancing patterns of light on the walls as it reflected off my bare arms. I was in the topmost floor of the three-storey penthouse in Dartmouth, sorting out Renesmee's clothes for the coming school term. Jacob was with Nessie at the mall, trying to hunt down a special edition CD that she suddenly couldn't do without for _another minute_. I'd rolled my eyes at _that_ one; I knew that it was just an excuse to hang out with Jake alone - he would be starting college the next day. There was no way he could pass off as a high school senior any longer just to be closer to Nessie, not when he looked to be well into his twenties. I felt the usual mixture of pity and relief at this _very_ temporary separation (she would still see him at home everyday) as at every facet of their changing relationship; the pity, for my best friend, and the relief - of a parent. Nessie was in her early teens now, in human years, but I wasn't ready to let my baby grow up _that_ much, just yet.

The TV was switched on in the first floor, and I was half-listening to the snippets of different channels as Edward flipped through them, while I made a list of things I had to buy, when his mobile rang.

'Hello, Carlisle.' I heard Edward's voice, and Carlisle's greeting, as clearly as if they were both beside me, despite the sounds of the ad jingles on the television.

Carlisle's usually calm voice sounded anxious.

_'Could you and Bella come home for a while, Edward? There's a …situation. Yes, I've already called Alice and Jasper. No, not danger precisely… We have been joined by another of our kind… I believe you know him – Julian? He says he met you somewhere in Ohio during the Great Depression…'_

I heard Edward's surprised exclamation. 'Ah! We'll be there, Carlisle.'

I was out of the room and downstairs before he'd finished speaking. He was looking down at his phone, seemingly lost in thought, and grimaced when he saw my questioning expression.

'We need to leave, love.'

I wasn't pleased.

'Who's Julian? Renesmee's school term starts tomorrow, Edward, and you know we can't leave–'

He interrupted me hastily. 'You know she'll be perfectly safe with Jake, Rose and Emmett here, love. Julian is… a friend. I would have gone alone, but I think Carlisle wants _you_ there too… I had the feeling he wasn't telling me everything.' He frowned slightly, looking down at the phone in his hand. '_Please_ Bella?' He turned his golden eyes on me, pleading.

I pulled a face at him. He chuckled at my disgruntled expression and kissed me; he knew very well that I couldn't resist that tone.

As Edward made arrangements for the flight to Seattle, I put away the last of the clothes, still feeling a little peeved. It _would_ be nice to have nearly all the family together again; the last we had seen Carlisle and Esme was nearly two months back, when they had come to Dartmouth for a week. They had continued living in Forks for the past three years; mostly for Charlie's sake – he still did not quite trust that I would _not_ disappear from his life suddenly - their presence helped calm some of those fears. Alice and Jasper were at Cornell, where Jazz was continuing his studies of philosophy, and Rosalie and Emmett were taking night courses at Dartmouth College, the same as me and Edward (Rosalie couldn't stay away from Nessie either), though they lived in a separate house, nearer to the forest – which afforded greater privacy. I looked forward to seeing Charlie again, too, and observing how life with Sue suited him; but I had never been separated from Nessie after those first three days of my new life, and I knew that I would be chafing with anxiety throughout the trip.

His arms slipped around my waist from behind. 'Don't worry, my love.' Edward did not need his gift to read my mind, he understood me too well, even without it. 'We'll be back before she even notices that we're gone.'

I sighed, and turned around to rest my head on his chest.

Little did we know how wrong he would turn out to be.

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**A/N:** Well, did that catch your interest? Would you like to know more? If yes, please leave a review!

My main sources of information are the books, the Official Illustrated Guide to Twilight, the Twilight Lexicon, Wikipedia and Google Maps(I've never been to the places I'm describing, and I've not watched any of the movies; I have a thing against movie adaptations) so if I make any errors, please feel free to correct me!


	2. Chapter 1

**A/N: ***cough* This is where I introduce _my_ main characters. Bella and Edward's human-vampire love story was wonderful, of course, but what if you had a human and a vampire who did _not _want to get into a relationship? How would love blossom then, if at all? We(me, just as much as you) will see, in Lily and Julian's side-story.

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**One week earlier, a few hundred miles south of Forks, Washington, somewhere near Portland, Oregon. **

_Lily_

The sliver of the night sky, visible through the black canopy of the forest, looked dark gray and ominous: as though threatening that a storm was to break overhead any second. The wind blowing in through the gap beneath the tent was cold and damp, the kind which usually caused me to hunt for the warmest blanket I could lay my hands on, and snuggle cozily and happily in bed with a favorite book.

I shivered inside my sleeping bag, wishing that I had chosen to indulge in my sudden streak of recklessness in a warmer pastime. Hot-air ballooning, perhaps, or trekking across the desert. _But those would have taken a sizeable chunk out of your savings_, whispered the practical portion of my mind. _A trip along the side of the Willamette River is definitely much more economical._

But so much colder. I sighed and sat up. The lighted screen of my digital watch showed the time to be around one in the morning, but it didn't look like sleep was any closer than it had been four hours earlier, when the trek team had decided to hit the sack.

_Trek team._ I snorted to myself, as I slipped on my parka and got out of my tent to rekindle the campfire. The name implied something professional, whereas in real, we were all just a bunch of amateurs who seemed to have been struck by the same crazy impulse to do something _different_ at the same time. This was _different_, all right. I was out of my hometown for the very first time, on a trip with people who were mostly strangers, but no closer to the answers I sought than when I was back home.

It took a couple of tries, but I finally had the fire going. I sat back on the tree stump that I had occupied earlier in the evening, and stared broodingly at the flickering flames, thinking of the past week. The fight with my mother, Kitty's well-meant probing, and the sudden chance to escape from it all.

I had been told to report to the Intel offices at Hillsboro for a technical conference, and had flown out of Utah on Monday, leaving Salt Lake City for the very first time after I was born. The three days of the conference had been very busy, but I hadn't felt ready to go home at the end – so when I'd overheard a couple of the people at the IT department discussing a trip along the Willamette River, I'd inveigled an invitation, called up the Riverton office back home and taken a week's leave, before the sensible part of my mind could begin throwing doubts at me.

The past two days had been fun, I had to admit; though I'd rued my impulsive decision more than once, when I'd had to subtly rebuff two guys on the team who had seemed interested in creating more _lasting_ memories than what the trek would afford. Back home, it would've been just a matter of time before the office gossip informed them – _Lily doesn't date_. I scowled at the wood burning away under the flames, remembering my mother's warning. I'd been able to put off thinking about it for two days, having been so tired after miles of trudging about with my backpack, that I'd had no energy left but to put up my tent and fall asleep. Today, however, had been fruitless from the beginning. We'd followed a trail that was supposed to lead to Boring, Oregon – a place that the guys on the team thought a _must_ visit just because of its funny name – but which had led us quite far in the opposite direction before we'd realized our mistake. It had been too late to turn back, so we'd decided to turn in sooner than usual, and start back early tomorrow morning. And now, I wasn't tired enough to sleep.

I'd stared at the ceiling of my tent and brooded over the emotional wreck that my life was; I sat now before the small fire I'd concocted and brooded some more. I didn't know how much time passed as I sat unmoving before the wavering flames; the cold, damp wind had quieted down to a small breeze.

I didn't know what it was that suddenly made me feel like I was no longer alone; there had been no sound in the quiet current of air, not even the rustle of leaves. None of my companions had been roused by the flickering light of the fire. I looked up from the brightness of the fire, blinking rapidly to let my eyes adjust, and looked around, feeling vaguely uneasy.

I'd barely had time to notice a pair of vivid red eyes glowing out of the darkness behind me, when something hit my head, and the world went black.

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**Two weeks earlier, a little to the north of Montgomery, Alabama.**

_Julian_

It was at moments like this that I wished for the blank oblivion that _may_ have been mine after death, according to some perceptions of afterlife.

I tried to block out the scent of the human's blood as I waited for the vampire in front of me to finish sating her thirst. It was very difficult; in spite of my nearly eighty years of experience in abstaining from drinking human blood, I could maintain control over my natural instincts only if I'd fed recently, and that wasn't the case now. It was only the worry over Trevor that was stronger than the burn of the thirst, so I held my breath and concentrated on that as I waited for the sucking sound to stop.

I still remembered the moment, six months ago, when I had returned to the house and found Trevor missing. We had been living in Xiantao, a small city in central China for the past two decades, and hadn't met any of our kind within a hundred miles' radius for all that time. Everything had been in the same condition as when I'd left it a few hours previously; but there were scents of others all around the living room, others of our kind – unfamiliar scents that I had never come across before. Trevor's scent had led out of the house and the small driveway, after which it disappeared: he had obviously been driven away in a car.

In the frenzied anger and fear of the next few minutes; confusing even to my lightning fast mind as I ran through hundreds of possibilities, I had been sure of only one thing: I _had_ to save Trevor from whoever had taken him. There was no doubt in my mind that he _did_ need saving; Trevor looked up to me as if I were, in truth, his older brother, and would never have left willingly – unless he thought that _I_ was in trouble and in need of help. Trevor's gift was also a curse; he inspired such a strong feeling of trust in everyone who met him(including me, the cynical recluse) that they'd feel like they could lay bare their soul, and it would be safe with him; but while he was the most trustworthy, he was also the most _trusting_. He was the most unsuspecting, naïve child; and I say _child_ – despite the hundred odd years of his existence – for that was how he always seemed to me - my adopted younger brother, whom I had to protect and look out for. I was responsible for him, as I had been the reason for this state of his, for condemning him to this eternal half-life. But Trevor never blamed me - to him I was family, his elder brother, and his trust in me was more absolute than in any other.

I'd begun the search immediately, but there were really very few leads to follow. My first suspects were the Volturi, and I had flown to Volterra; but I didn't have to scout about for long, before I realised that his scent was nowhere in the vicinity of the city, and neither were those of the vampires who must have taken him. I had left before my presence could come to the attention of the guard – I wasn't afraid of Aro, my gift being one that was of no use to him – but I didn't want to meet Jane or Alec again.

I had contacted the few acquaintances we'd had, to see if they knew of his whereabouts, and when that didn't lead to anything, had begun a long and so-far futile search. It was very difficult; I had isolated myself from others of my kind so much so that there were very few to whom I could turn to for help. It had taken me about five months to cover Europe, tracking the scents of Trevor's captors. But I'd found nothing but weak trails that led nowhere, and so, I had been reduced to finding the resident immortals in cities I covered, to describe Trevor and ask if they'd met him.

I had flown to the States the previous week, starting along the East Coast. My task was hindered by the warm climate of these parts; I was forced to reconnoitre only at night. I'd come across this vampire in a dark side street just as she had moved in for the kill; she had turned on me for a moment, defensive of her prey, but when she'd seen my casual, non-threatening stance – leaning against the wall of the building in the corner - she'd continued her hunt.

Her thirst sated now, she threw aside the drained body, straightened out of her crouch and eyed me appraisingly. She was an attractive woman, like all others of our kind, probably in her mid-thirties when she had been turned.

'Well?'

I drew in a breath. 'My name is Julian. I'm searching for my younger brother, Trevor.'

I showed her the picture that was on Trevor's passport – the dimpled chin, the black contacts that hid the true colour of his eyes, the glossy black hair.

She had taken the photograph, and before I could hold out Trevor's shirt - the one which I'd been using to help identify his scent - she let out an exclamation.

'Oh! This is your brother? I came across him just last week… but he was with another coven.' She eyed me doubtingly.

I tamped down my eagerly hopeful expression to one that was more relaxed.

'Could you tell me about them? Please?'

She eyed me for a few more seconds, and then returned the photograph to me.

'Walk with me.' I fell in step with her.

'My name is Mary. I don't reside in these parts - I prefer to wander as my fancy leads me. Last week I was in Jackson, when I encountered the coven that I spoke of – the one that your …brother, this Trevor – seemed to be a part of.' She threw me a sideways glance. I hadn't missed the slight pause or the doubtful tone.

'Apart from him, the coven consisted of another male and a female. He seemed devoted to them.' She glanced at me again. I struggled not to let my disbelief show, and to not let the niggling sense of doubt grow into a sense of betrayal.

At my continued silence, she resumed her narration.

'I didn't actually speak with Trevor; it was clear that the other male was the leader of the group. He seemed very pleasant; it had apparently been a long time since they had been in this part of the world, and he wished to know if there was any interesting news.'

She looked away into the distance, where the lights still lit up the night in the centre of the city, then back to me, her eyes speculative.

'You look to be new to these parts, too.'

I suppressed my impatience with some difficulty. She was obviously suspicious about me, and to be fair, there was really no reason for her to believe my story.

I told her of my origin in a few short sentences, and told her something of Trevor's nature and our life. She seemed a bit mollified; it was obvious that she had fallen for Trevor's spell, even in the short time of their meeting, and now felt protective of him.

'The only real incident of significance that has occurred in recent times,' she continued, 'happened three years ago, in Washington - a confrontation between the Volturi and the Cullen coven.' I started.

'Do you know them?' she asked.

'I'd met Edward Cullen about eighty years ago, in Ohio.'

She seemed to relax a little more at this information, and proceeded to tell me the astonishing story of the half-vampire child, the daughter of Edward and Isabella Cullen.

'The possibility of creating half-vampires is exceedingly astounding, but the leader seemed more amazed that a coven had managed to stand against the Volturi, and come away unscathed.' She shook her head wonderingly. 'I was there, and I still marvel at it myself, too – it was only possible because of the presence of so many gifted vampires.'

She looked at me. 'As far as I could see, he was so impressed by the account of the Cullens that he wished to meet them himself. Carlisle Cullen is an old friend of mine; I would never have sent anyone who would make trouble their way. This coven seemed harmless; the leader was charismatic and very civilised, so I directed him to their house in Forks, Washington.'

'What was the name of the leader?' I asked, feeling a curious knot of dread forming; it was as if I had a premonition of what her answer would be.

'He said his name was Christopher.'

A feral snarl escaped my lips. I'd whirled about and was running, racing in the direction of the north, before the startled exclamation could even leave her lips.

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**A/N: **Okay, first off - why did I create my own characters, and not just put Bella and Edward in a AU-fic, and develop the plot from there? Because I love both of them just _as they are_, and yet, wanted to know how a love story would develop with characters of different temperaments. Eternity is a long time for love to _last_, after all.

Also, for purposes that will become clear later, I wish to deviate slightly from canon. It's mentioned in the Official Illustrated Guide that Jane and Alec were turned around 800 A.D. I'm considering that they were turned in around the 1600s. [Witch-burnings were still prevalent then, so it's still historically accurate too. :P ]

I _love_ reviews, even if - _'This is making no sense'_, _'It's all right, I suppose'_ or _'Stop babbling, AiteIncarnate, and just continue with the story' - _are all that you have for me. Of course, a detailed_, _line-by-line critique would make me your slave for life, but I suppose that would be too much to hope for. ;)


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